Gratitude Goddesses Part 3: Adding faces, words and embellishments to your paper doll chain

Key Points

• Expressive arts coach Dr. Minette Riordan guides midlife women through Part 3 of her Gratitude Goddesses creative ritual—adding faces, words, and embellishments to their paper doll chains.
• Each handmade goddess becomes a reflection of gratitude, compassion, and courage, linking journaling, art, and mindfulness into a daily November ritual. Participants are encouraged to slow down, play, and express gratitude through simple materials like fabric scraps, lace, and collage faces.
• Experts in mindful creativity say practices that blend reflection with tactile artmaking help reduce stress, deepen self-compassion, and cultivate a sense of wonder—especially during the season of giving thanks.

Welcome back, creative soul 💖

Today in our Gratitude Goddesses series, we begin the truly magical part of the journey—giving our goddesses a voice, a face, and a sacred story.

So far, we’ve created our base dolls—whether on paper, fabric, or canvas. Now, we begin the daily ritual of working with the journaling prompts, decorating one doll each day, and letting each one reflect a piece of our gratitude and growth.

In Part 3, we’re breathing even more life into our paper dolls by:

✨ Adding words or affirmations to your dolls

✨ Embellishing with ribbons, buttons, washi tape, and found treasures to add texture, sparkle, and symbolism

✨ Exploring simple ways to draw or collage faces and hair to give each goddess personality and soul You’ve already created your base dolls—now it’s time to bring them into full expression with your own heart, hands, and symbols of gratitude. 

🎨 Suggested Supplies

• Printed doll templates or your base paper/fabric dolls
• Colored pens, markers, or paint pens
• Old book pages or printed affirmations
• Small embellishments: buttons, sequins, lace, washi tape
• Fabric scraps, glue, or Mod Podge
• Journaling tools for daily reflection

✨ We’re also stepping fully into the daily journaling + doll ritual now. Follow the prompts, work on one doll per day, and let this creative practice become a sacred pause in your November rhythm.

Let each doll be a blessing. Let your words be a prayer. Let your art reflect your becoming. 

This isn’t about perfection—it’s about presence.

Each doll becomes a visual prayer… a tiny altar of joy, healing, and wholeness.

You don’t have to do all 30 dolls perfectly. You don’t have to journal every day. Just begin again. One doll. One moment of wonder. One breath of gratitude.

With love and creative joy,
Minette

Transcript

[0:01] : Good morning, my creative friends, and welcome to Painting in Your PJs with Minette. I am Dr. Minette Riordan. I am
[0:08] : in my PJs and excited to be here with all of you for the third installment in
[0:14] : our November gratitude goddesses. So, if you're just happening to dip in today to
[0:22] : this video during the month of November, we are creating
[0:27] : paper doll chains of goddesses. And my ones that are put together, of course, I
[0:32] : didn't bring over here. This is a black and white set that I'm working on. We're going to look at some colored ones
[0:38] : today. And every year, I like to do a deeper Good morning, Tori. A deeper,
[0:45] : more intentional gratitude reflection. And and uh process because I feel like
[0:53] : not only is gratitude important, but that we often tend to just make a list or we keep it kind of at that surface
[1:01] : level. But when we spend a little time journaling about an aspect of oursel or
[1:08] : nature or others a little bit deeper that something
[1:13] : magical can happen that it settles in our bones and that we can really feel gratitude in a whole new way. And over
[1:22] : the last two weeks, we looked at using different kinds of master sheets and
[1:28] : both fabric and paper for creating all the paper dolls all at once. So that
[1:34] : then each day you can just add embellishments and details to those dolls. So today I'm going to work on the
[1:41] : ones I started last week and add embellishments, add some faces to them,
[1:48] : but also talk about how we can take some of the words from our journaling and almost make each doll like a little poem
[1:56] : or a little prayer of gratitude. Don't know what's going to happen. I never do.
[2:01] : If you're brand new here, this is never about me being an art teacher. This is just simply sharing my creative process
[2:09] : so that it inspires you to create your own process to dip in in the way that
[2:15] : feels joyful. I believe that art as a creative process is such a powerful tool
[2:21] : for personal transformation. And if you're brand new here, I'm passionate about supporting women in the second
[2:26] : half of their life to really become the queen of their own story to recognize
[2:32] : that midlife is not a crisis, but it's a renaissance. And one of the ways that we can do that is by reconnecting to our
[2:39] : inner artist through play and this month through a playful expression of our
[2:47] : gratitude as well. So, you can see I have a box or a scattering of chaos here
[2:54] : in front of me on the table. I kind of just went around my studio and gathered up a few things. These were the base
[3:03] : dolls that I created last week on some old poster
[3:08] : board I found tucked away in the studio. And you can see a Thank you, Tori. I so
[3:15] : appreciate you. And this is um a great
[3:20] : way to just have something on the page almost like each little doll. Good morning, Lorraine. Each little doll is
[3:27] : like a little mini art journal page in her own right. And so today, I want to
[3:34] : just give attention to a few of these as we go along. And we are now on the 6th
[3:42] : of November. And there is a link to a blog post where you can find both the
[3:47] : template for the dolls as well as the list of daily prompts. Don't try to read
[3:54] : those. I know they're blurry on the page, but I want to look at Good morning, Ann. I want to look at how we
[4:02] : can take some words from our journaling and bring them into our doll to kind of
[4:08] : highlight them in a different way. While I'm using each one of these as a little mini journal page where I'll do some
[4:14] : writing on the back of the doll, I had that thought of wouldn't it be nice to pull out some of those words and put
[4:21] : them on the front of my dolls as well. And the prompt today is I offer
[4:27] : compassion to the part of me that I offer compassion to the part of me that.
[4:33] : And perhaps I offer compassion to the part of me that feels not enough or that
[4:40] : feels tired or that feels stressed because there's so much to do at work or
[4:46] : at home or wherever. Good morning, Anna. And so I want to think about simply
[4:53] : bringing some of my thoughts from my writing onto the front of one of the dolls. And it may simply be I am enough.
[5:01] : It might simply be I offer myself compassion today, right? And so you
[5:07] : might be wondering, well, how does gratitude connect to this idea of compassion for
[5:13] : the self? So in week one of November, we're focusing on gratitude for the self first because when we fill our own well
[5:21] : of gratitude, of joy, of rest, of play, then we give from the overflow. So,
[5:32] : how compassion is an aspect of gratitude is creating a space for us to pause.
[5:39] : My thoughts aren't aren't coming super clearly this morning, but it's a way to invite us to pause and think about my
[5:47] : gratitude for compassion. I'm grateful that I can have compassion for myself,
[5:53] : that I've done so much healing work over the years, that I don't spend as much time in judgment or beating myself up,
[6:02] : and I also don't spend as much time uh giving from an empty well. Right? So, I
[6:08] : am enough might be the thing I'm grateful for today. I have compassion for myself might be the thing that I'm
[6:16] : grateful for today. So, a way to kind of pull all this together a little bit more
[6:22] : visually. And I'm excited to play with paper today. The last couple of weeks I played more with fabric. And it feels
[6:30] : fun to come and figure out what we can add to these brightly colored little beauties here. And I even just was
[6:38] : chatting with a friend on Zoom the other day, having a catch-up call, and just kind of grabbed my pen. So, I'm gonna
[6:44] : zoom in here and let me go focus in a little bit. Bear with me just one
[6:52] : minute. That's a little better. We're going to work up close today. There we go. And
[7:00] : so, I just took a pen and outlined some of the things that were already on the doll, which felt really fun. But it also
[7:09] : there's something about these dolls and the shape of them that feel very grandmotherly. And so I'm wanting to add
[7:16] : more to these dolls. And you'll see in the email, the Paperd Doll Chronicles
[7:22] : email list this morning, I sent out these faces. There's two pages of faces.
[7:29] : this page and this page as well so that you can either use the faces as they are
[7:35] : to collage onto your dolls or you can use them as inspiration for drawing very
[7:42] : simple faces. We're not trying to make these little dolls realistic or perfect.
[7:47] : We're just trying to keep them really simple. And that's what I did on some of
[7:53] : these black and white ones. Right? I just drew super simple faces on the
[7:58] : couple of these that I have worked on so far, and I can't wait to work on more of
[8:04] : those black and white ones because they are so fun. Um, yay, Tori. Glad you got
[8:09] : an earlier spot. See you later. Have a good dentist appointment. So, you know,
[8:14] : it can be something as simple as this. This is just a piece of fabric with some
[8:20] : um painted black and white. And I just literally glued some rick rack and a
[8:26] : piece of an old handkerchief on here that I found. So remembering that the
[8:32] : dolls don't have to be elaborate, but it's more about the how do these become
[8:38] : a nice reflection of our gratitude practice. All right, still not quite
[8:44] : getting that focus where I wanted this morning. There we go.
[8:51] : And I'm teaching myself to crochet. And I was digging through a box of thread. I
[8:57] : haven't even trimmed this one up yet. And this is some lovely hand dyed wool
[9:03] : from a workshop that I took last year. I'm going to trim those little pieces
[9:10] : off. But I thought, wouldn't this little crocheted piece make a lovely apron or
[9:19] : even a lovely little shaw on my doll here? So, look through your stash and,
[9:26] : you know, notice kind of, oh, I actually love it as a shaw. What kind of little
[9:32] : bits and pieces do you have lying around the studio that would be perfect to use
[9:38] : up for a project like this one? So, at least one of my dolls is going to get
[9:44] : this piece. I pulled out some fun lace. Look at that with the with the hearts
[9:50] : and it has a little bit of gold trim. My friend Laney was a stationer and used to
[9:56] : do a lot of wedding invitations. And when she retired and was cleaning out
[10:01] : her studio, she had all these samples of lace and ribbon that she gave to me. And
[10:08] : this was a a fun way to use them up would be for these dolls. In fact, I'm
[10:14] : feeling drawn to these cute little hearts that maybe might become
[10:21] : part of an apron or maybe a little bit of trim on her
[10:28] : the bottom of her gown here. And remember, you can stitch on paper. You
[10:34] : can glue things on paper. I also found at the thrift store a while back, I
[10:41] : found a bag full of all different, you know, kind of paint your own
[10:48] : wood things. And this one has a bucket
[10:55] : and a little watering can, I think. Oh, and it has a wheelbarrow.
[11:02] : So maybe one of these is going to have a fun little garden theme with some
[11:07] : flowers added. So this is again that um great way to I'm actually really loving
[11:14] : these little flower buckets and wondering, you know, if I could use those and draw some
[11:22] : little flowers on there. So look around your stash, see what you have laying
[11:27] : around. I have grabbed all different kinds of things. a few bits of beads and
[11:33] : rick rack. And I'm mostly just going to be gluing things on today or using
[11:39] : double stick tape to adhere them. Also grab some old jewelry in case any of my
[11:45] : paper dolls wanted to get up a little bit. And when I think about adding words to
[11:52] : these, I also want to think about where would I add those words? And for some of
[11:58] : them, I definitely want to use my typewriter to create some of those words. You can tell I've already been painting in my studio this morning. Um,
[12:06] : where you might want to place those words. So if this is my doll of
[12:14] : compassion to express gratitude for my capacity for compassion or
[12:21] : I'm leaning into the belief that I am enough or I am loved or I am creative,
[12:27] : you know, so affirmations might be really good on here. So before I put anything else, I might think for a
[12:34] : little bit where I might want to put some words on here. And so those don't
[12:41] : go together. I love this kind of wordy, grungy piece.
[12:47] : Kind of feels like a cute little part of an apron with a couple of little buttons
[12:55] : stitched on there and maybe some words below. I don't know why I've been into aprons
[13:02] : lately and feeling like these ladies enjoy wearing little aprons. The piece
[13:09] : isn't quite long enough, but maybe I'll add some lace to it. So, you can see how I'm just kind of trying things on for
[13:16] : size. I'm not trying to put anything down yet, but I'm thinking through the
[13:21] : different elements that I want to add to her to bring her to life. And I think
[13:27] : what's going to help me is first to give her a face.
[13:32] : And I'm just going to collage these faces on. And as I'm looking at my page
[13:39] : of faces here, I'm feeling drawn to this face.
[13:51] : I'm just going to quickly cut this out and try it on. and we'll see if we like
[13:56] : this space.
[14:01] : And those of you that are watching live, have you started on your dolls? Have you
[14:07] : made some dolls? Have you done some of the journaling prompts? You know, one way to do this is just to write one word
[14:16] : every day. you know, so I'm someone that likes to journal and I have an evening
[14:22] : gratitude journaling practice and I've been using th these prompts for that.
[14:32] : So, she definitely needs a little bit more of a neck here. So, it feels like
[14:38] : it needs to stand up a little higher. I tried to size them to match the
[14:44] : templates, but depending on the templates that you're using, you might
[14:49] : need to change the size of the faces to fit. I'm
[14:55] : just going to grab my glue stick here.
[15:01] : But I'm loving how the journal prompts just invite uh
[15:07] : a little more writing, a little more thought and reflection than just a list
[15:14] : of gratitudes. My husband and I were talking about this the other day, you know, and he was talking about, well,
[15:19] : I'm making my, you know, my list of things, but I think we have to go deeper in our gratitude
[15:26] : practice than making a list of today I was grateful for. Well, why were you
[15:32] : grateful? And how did it make you feel in the moment?
[15:38] : What inspires you to be grateful? You know, some days I'm grateful for a
[15:43] : wonderful catchup conversation with a girlfriend or a note for a friend. A friend dropped
[15:50] : off a beautiful handmade journal on my front porch yesterday. And you know, it
[15:57] : makes me think about how deeply grateful I am for my friendships. Oh, she's very
[16:03] : cute. Okay, starting to come to life. She's very simple. Actually really like the black hair. It feels like it's given
[16:10] : her a little bit of
[16:17] : contrast there that feels useful. And now that she has a neck, it also feels
[16:23] : like I can come in here and stitch this shaw together. So, she might end up
[16:30] : looking different than I thought. Or what if one of these little buttons was
[16:37] : the closure here? In which case, would I want to color the little button? Or I
[16:44] : don't know that that's the right button. I also have this. Oh, that one's kind of fun. A very sparkly green button that
[16:53] : feels kind of fun. Right. So again, it's about trying things on and seeing what
[16:59] : it is that you like and what goes with one thing over another thing.
[17:05] : All right, I'm going to cut these strings off and hope this whole thing doesn't fall apart. So, I think this was like the the
[17:12] : first thing that I crocheted recently. And I'm sure there's a way to pull that
[17:20] : all back together. I'm going to pull that one back in this way. I don't need
[17:25] : it to be perfect. And I am going to
[17:31] : grab a needle
[17:36] : and see if I've what I've gotten here.
[17:43] : So, I've got some just pearl cotton embroidery floss
[17:48] : that I think will be fine for stitching this together. Again, I don't need it to
[17:55] : be perfect. I have a needle with a pretty big eye
[18:00] : because the pearl cotton is pretty thick and I want it to be easy to thread.
[18:10] : We'll see if it's going to be easy to thread or not.
[18:16] : And as I work on the details of the doll, part of the intention.
[18:22] : All right. Doesn't want to go through that one. Bear with me for a minute.
[18:28] : So, as I'm working on this idea of compassion for the self,
[18:36] : because we're in a week where we are honoring compassion, and I'm honoring compassion to that part
[18:44] : of me that wants things to be done right. I'm honoring compassion
[18:50] : to my inner critic. So, perhaps it will All right, I'm going to get a needle threader here.
[18:57] : um so that my inner critic can relax and take a break so that I can just have fun
[19:03] : and enjoy the process of creating and remember that our inner critic is
[19:11] : there for a reason, right? That inner critic was born at some stage of our
[19:16] : life in order to keep us safe from
[19:21] : perceived harm. Right? So, you know, just start to think about all these things as you work on each of your dolls
[19:30] : on a daily basis. Let's see. Want the yellow on
[19:39] : top or the green on top?
[19:46] : So, it's a little bigger at the bottom. So, it might actually fit a little more
[19:51] : neatly this way. Yes, it does.
[19:58] : And the nice thing about working with paper or fabric is that it's, you know,
[20:03] : pretty easy to
[20:08] : move things around and have them be flexible.
[20:14] : And I am someone who loves slow stitching and embroidery. I am not someone who knows about a lot about
[20:21] : sewing. So I tend to just make it up as I go along. Right? So again, this is I
[20:28] : love the way fabric and thread look in my mixed media. So this is I'm having
[20:35] : compassion for the part of me that's like, "Oh, I should know like the best way to do this or the right way to do
[20:42] : it." And there probably is no right way. There might at some point be a better
[20:50] : way, but none of that matters right now. Only thing that matters is that I'm having fun. I'm connecting to myself.
[20:58] : I'm creating this beautiful reminder of what it looks like to have compassion
[21:05] : for myself. This doesn't need to again be perfect.
[21:11] : It's going to be hidden in here. And you know, a lot of times with like a fun little piece like this that can just
[21:19] : hang on the doll, what I love about this, I can always Oops.
[21:24] : take it off and reuse it again later.
[21:30] : So, if you're really attached to something and thinking, "Oh, you know, I couldn't possibly use that for this
[21:36] : project." Well, maybe you can. You know, sometimes we can tape or lightly stitch
[21:42] : or paperclipip things together in a way that
[21:48] : makes it easy to take it apart.
[21:58] : And now she's fancy. She feels fancy and I love that. So, you know, um I can have
[22:04] : compassion for that part of me who absolutely adores bling, right? And uh
[22:13] : used to wear a lot of bling when I lived in Texas, but this feels like, you know,
[22:18] : it just added that little bit between the the shawl and the sparkly glittery
[22:24] : button that it justed her up a little bit and makes her feel a little fancy.
[22:31] : And again, remembering that every day doesn't have to be an elaborate addition
[22:37] : to the doll to keep things pretty simple, right? And um
[22:46] : and so I'm trying to think of my words that I said, what are the words that I would want to put on here?
[22:58] : I might even just put I am compassionate
[23:05] : in my own handwriting.
[23:11] : And knowing that saying I am compassionate in this week of gratitude
[23:17] : to the self means that I am practicing being compassionate towards myself.
[23:25] : And this is just a piece of scrap paper from the card stock that I made my dolls
[23:31] : on that was just floating around on the table. So, no fancy anything here.
[23:50] : I could even just simply put the word compassionate, right?
[23:59] : Actually, what feels good, thank goodness for glue sticks because they go
[24:04] : on and off easily, is I think that I just want the word compassion on there.
[24:13] : And just by putting that one word on there, it will remind me
[24:18] : what this doll stands for. Right? So this is gratitude for compassion.
[24:25] : Whether I am receiving compassion, giving compassion, right? Practicing
[24:33] : being compassionate with myself. And I'm looking at her thinking, "Oh,
[24:38] : she could really use some white in her hair.
[24:49] : So, I'm going to come in and Oh, and I dragged my hand through that one. All right. Compassion for mistakes." Like,
[24:56] : I'm creating all kinds of things to be compassionate about with myself today.
[25:12] : Give her some little eyelashes there. Just make her feel just a little bit more my own.
[25:27] : So there I have my day six doll for today who is my gratitude doll of
[25:35] : compassion. And um I'm noticing that this little piece over here almost feels like a fun
[25:42] : little pocket. Like this little something something is sticking out of the pocket which feels fun and festive.
[25:49] : And I also have my big box of paint markers here.
[25:58] : And I'm wondering if I want to maybe just come in and play a little bit
[26:06] : more, add a few more little highlights. So, just remembering that
[26:14] : each day you get to decide how much or how little
[26:21] : you want to add to your doll. You could simply add a
[26:27] : face and do a little writing on the back and keep it really simple.
[26:33] : She's gonna have this little golden ball in her pocket there.
[26:40] : Maybe I'll just add a little shimmer shimmer. You can just barely see those. So, it's a gold Uniball Signo gel pen.
[26:49] : Love their gel pens. And it looks like she has some quirky
[26:54] : buttons there and maybe a little that gold on her boots.
[27:03] : And you could spend hours dressing them up, keeping them really simple. So
[27:10] : again, you get to decide how much time you have. But I love my doll of compassion here. And if I were to I
[27:18] : haven't done yesterday's yet because yesterday got really um busy. So a
[27:25] : strength I didn't know I had. um h at this point in my life I know my
[27:33] : strengths pretty well. So if I rephrase that maybe of um what is gratitude for a
[27:39] : strength I do have that I'm always grateful for my resilience
[27:49] : and actually I would say compassion and empathy are strengths that maybe and I can't spell today are uh strengths that
[27:57] : I didn't always know that I had and I would even say that gratitude is
[28:04] : becoming a strength that I haven't cultivated a lot um you know in the the
[28:11] : past on a deeper level. So there's a lot of things but I'm going to trust that that first word that popped up here was
[28:19] : resilience. And uh over on Instagram I did share
[28:26] : pictures of three and four, right? and really honoring that my body has carried
[28:31] : me through 60 years, right, of attention. Um, definitely not treating
[28:38] : as as well as it could, right, and so many experiences,
[28:43] : childbirth, right? So, if you haven't looked at the prompts, they're really powerful. I created them with so much
[28:50] : intention for you guys. So, highly recommend going over to the blog and checking out those prompts. But now I'm
[28:57] : feeling like let me dig into this idea of resilience. And actually even better
[29:04] : than that, the word that is popping into my head is courage. So a strength I
[29:10] : didn't know I had is courage. And it's like we kind of know that, but there's
[29:17] : times in our lives when we have to dig in more deeply and push through
[29:22] : experiences that are hard. And we always have a lot more courage than we think we
[29:27] : do. And courage is often what builds resilience. So, let's do one more today
[29:34] : and do my day five doll. And this is going to be my courage doll. So, I'm
[29:41] : going to look at these other paper ones that I had here. And this is I love this
[29:48] : stuff. I can't remember what it's called. So, oh, roving. No, roving maybe is the big soft one. I can't remember
[29:54] : any weavers here. Um, but I love this
[29:59] : big fun like flowy hair. This stuff makes great hair.
[30:06] : So, last weekend my husband and I went to
[30:12] : a little town called Manitou Springs outside of Colorado Springs. And I'm
[30:18] : gonna pull these beautiful long curls off because she's feeling this one feels like she wants some really long hair
[30:26] : here. And just outside of Colorado Springs is an amazing creative reuse
[30:32] : store called What the Who Gives a Scrap? Who gives a scrap? Been around a long
[30:38] : time. It was so well organized and they had so much amazing fabric that um I
[30:45] : have bought some fabric to perhaps make some um dimensional dolls. So, what I'm
[30:53] : thinking in December is that I want to do some dimensional doll making. So,
[30:59] : some three-dimensional dolls instead of paper dolls for little something different to end our year of doll making
[31:07] : together. And I'm just playing with her hair and thinking, okay, I'm gonna glue that on
[31:13] : there. Maybe trim it up a little bit. But, um, weavers use this stuff, right?
[31:20] : You called it angel hair in the crib on the angels. I love that. So, let's give
[31:26] : her a little bit of a face here.
[31:36] : And I'm thinking maybe this space because I'm going to cover up
[31:41] : all of that hair. I also like these, but I think these
[31:47] : were a little bit too small. And I'm not drawing the Let's see. Here's one. I'm
[31:54] : not drawing the faces on because there is glue stick stuck on here as well as
[32:03] : this slick poster board did not feel like a great surface to create on. And
[32:09] : that face just feels too small for the size of the the body and I didn't print
[32:16] : that set out larger. So, I'm going to go with one of these and see if it works
[32:21] : better for the size of my doll.
[32:27] : Actually, this one is bigger. So, maybe we'll try this one.
[32:37] : Cut that face out. And I have loved, even though I love to
[32:43] : draw faces, I have really also loved having all these collage faces to
[32:49] : use that I've created this year. I think it's uh simplified the process and
[32:54] : inspired me in a lot of different ways or shown me different ways to create
[32:59] : faces as well. Yeah. So that size is definitely better. So I'm seeing that in
[33:06] : my original template. You know, they don't really have much of a neck and I kind of like them to have a little bit
[33:12] : of a neck. So, just noticing that you can always change up the templates and
[33:18] : completely make them your own.
[33:32] : Just going to come in. I think one of the most fun things I
[33:38] : bought when I was at Who Gives a Scrap was actually this really pretty box to
[33:44] : put all the things that I had bought into the box. But I noticed in their
[33:51] : yarn part that they had tons of this stuff. Okay, so I'm going to come in. I've
[33:58] : showed this glue before. This precision craft grew glue is great for this. is
[34:05] : super sticky. It dries pretty fast. It has a nice really strong hold on it. So,
[34:12] : we're going to see if it's going to hold our hair here.
[34:20] : And I'm gonna just kind of make her hair feels like it wants to be really messy,
[34:29] : right? It doesn't need to be Oops. I'm gluing the paper to itself and I might
[34:34] : end up having to hot glue or stitch the glue on.
[34:40] : Maybe that's a little messier than I want. So, you know, you can see none of this stuff is perfect. This is always
[34:46] : very much about just trial and error. Um, there are doll makers who make
[34:53] : amazing, super fancy dolls and I am here for the
[34:59] : the play and the expression. So, I'm not worrying too much about getting it right
[35:06] : and it's just feeling like maybe it's too much here. Maybe that's why I'm struggling.
[35:14] : I've even stapled hair on before. So, Oh, that feels better.
[35:20] : She just needed a little bit less mess.
[35:26] : So, you can staple hair, you can sew hair, you can glue hair,
[35:33] : and we'll see if this stuff wants to be glued on. We'll just try a nice And
[35:39] : actually, my double stick tape that I love, my score tape would probably be perfect for this as well.
[35:46] : And if I can just get it down to start, I can always
[35:51] : fix it up later. But I want you to see what it looks like to just be messy and
[35:57] : playful and experiment without feeling that need to get it right. Right. So,
[36:03] : I'm not trying to get it right. I'm being compassionate for the kid in me
[36:09] : who's like, "Oh, this is fun. Let's play. Let me just glue this down. Who cares what it looks like?
[36:22] : And one of the ways that I have courage is making mistakes and being okay with
[36:27] : those mistakes. Okay, so there she has some hair. I'm
[36:34] : gonna move her hair out of the way. Might trim some of it up in a little
[36:41] : bit. We've got a little bit of a start on her hair.
[36:47] : Have to have a little more glue in there. Hot glue is definitely the the best for these kind of dimensional
[36:55] : projects.
[37:01] : Okay. I love her wild hair. I think I always wanted to have long super curly
[37:07] : hair and I've always had short hair.
[37:15] : And so I think there's something about her that having this super fun hair and
[37:22] : actually she kind of looks like Pippy Longtocking, one of my favorite childhood books as well. So whereas some
[37:29] : of them are feeling much more mature and grandmotherly,
[37:36] : right? This one is feeling much more youthful. I'm going to stick the One thing I
[37:44] : learned about this is to make sure you keep a pin in the top so that it doesn't
[37:51] : get all gummed up in there.
[37:56] : And afterwards, I think I will get a little hot glue and just put some hot glue on that hair and get it exactly
[38:03] : where I want it. So, let's see what else she might like to have. So, for feeling
[38:10] : a little more childlike here and knowing this is our courage
[38:20] : doll, I'm grateful for my courage. Maybe she's gonna want some of this
[38:27] : lace. Or maybe she's going to want some of these fun little
[38:34] : flower pot buttons with her wild hair.
[38:43] : Okay, those actually look pretty stinking cute. I need to paint them up
[38:48] : and put a little bit of color on them and then I can draw some flowers.
[38:54] : coming up for them. It definitely feels like she wants like a little belt or something here.
[39:03] : And I'm gonna just put her hair behind so I don't get it caught up in paint or
[39:10] : glue or stitching. And we'll keep working on her hair.
[39:16] : But I could feel myself getting frustrated with getting it stuck. So, you know, step away, come back. Okay.
[39:23] : So, I'm thinking these are going to be painted red, like little terracotta pots, but also from a visual creative
[39:32] : perspective, bringing some of the red up here back down into
[39:39] : this part of the our little mini canvas, if you will,
[39:45] : here. So, I've got just a little tiny tube of
[39:53] : pyrrol red. Amsterdam pyrrol red. Love this color. It's kind of a orangey red.
[40:01] : Okay, that's probably way more paint than I need, but that's okay. We'll use it up for something.
[40:06] : And I've got kind of a old acrylic brush here that I don't care about. Remember
[40:12] : not to use a nice brush, especially painting on wood or
[40:19] : canvas, right? Acrylic and canvas can be really hard on your brushes. Or maybe as
[40:25] : a Manette thing, I'm really hard on my brushes. They get frayed very easily.
[40:30] : And I'm going to paint around the the sides of the buttons because they're going to stand out on our doll.
[40:41] : And I'm gonna take one of my needles and clean the paint out of those little holes, too.
[40:51] : Okay, I'm going to set those aside. They should dry pretty quickly.
[41:12] : And I'm gonna find a baby wipe and clean my
[41:17] : fingers off. But I'm loving this sort of brighter red. And I'm wondering if I
[41:23] : want to just come in. And you know, they always say red heads
[41:28] : shouldn't wear red, but this one is going to.
[41:36] : And it's just kind of a way of making sure that we're pulling those colors,
[41:42] : creating that sort of cohesiveness,
[41:48] : and it's a brighter red. I like the nice pops of bright red. And now it also
[41:54] : gives me a clear distinction here between her top and her skirt. And I
[42:01] : think I might even go ahead and paint over her arm there.
[42:09] : So now all of a sudden I push that color. We talked about that a lot about creating, you know, mixed media master
[42:16] : sheets and how when you paint over the top of collage or other marks, it pushes
[42:23] : the busyiness back and makes the piece feel cohesive. So, I feel like I've
[42:29] : added that next layer of paint that helped to do that here.
[42:35] : I guess intuitively maybe I picked red because red is also one of the colors of
[42:42] : that symbolizes often is used to symbolize courage and passion.
[42:49] : Give her some little red boots here too, just to use up the last little bit of
[42:54] : that. Okay, she's looking cute except for the hair. Definitely got to work on
[43:00] : that hair. My little buttons are starting to dry
[43:05] : up. Grab one of my baby wipes. One of the must-have things in my studio.
[43:14] : And I love having painty fingers. I don't care about having painty fingers,
[43:20] : but in this instance, what I don't want is to get that red all over everything
[43:25] : else that I'm working on. Um, unintentionally, right? So, I'm sure, you know, I already
[43:32] : got a little bit on the back, but that doesn't matter because I'm just going to be journaling on the back, but this just
[43:38] : keeps that little bit of accidental paint off of there.
[43:46] : And I am going to take this bigger needle here and I'm just going to
[43:53] : poke that through the holes of those wood buttons to make
[43:58] : sure that I actually have holes to sew through when I am ready to stitch them
[44:05] : on. And those are still pretty wet.
[44:17] : Clean that needle off. Stick it back in my needle book over here.
[44:24] : And I'm wondering if I want to maybe stitch the flowers on in this
[44:31] : bright yellow. Again, kind of bringing um some of that texture in that I love
[44:37] : so much. And I actually still have quite a bit of yellow on my needle from
[44:43] : stitching our shaw on here as well.
[44:51] : All right. So, these are still wet, so I'm not going to glue them on, but I'm going to set them
[44:58] : here for just a second.
[45:07] : Right. Those are going to be very cute when they get stitched on. They're sticking to my fingers, so they're hard
[45:13] : to move around. But I want to come in and see where do I want to put my
[45:21] : flowers.
[45:28] : So, I can go ahead and draw the stems. The stems probably need to be a little
[45:35] : bit darker green, but we can at least get them started. That bright green
[45:41] : shows up nicely on that red. So, now I'm going to want to come and decorate my
[45:47] : pots. But now I know where I'm going to put my three little stitched flowers.
[45:54] : Yes, I will glue them down first and then add the stitching, but right now they're still too
[46:00] : wet to glue onto the doll. So, I'm trying to get let them get a little bit
[46:06] : drier and I may hit them with my hair dryer here in a minute. So, let's come
[46:13] : in over here. And I love stitching on paper. And sometimes it's a little
[46:19] : tricky. And one of the ways that you can get it started is to punch your holes
[46:24] : first. And I think that I'm just going to do
[46:30] : like a cute little almost sort of dandelion shaped
[46:35] : flower on here. We'll start with that one. Then I can turn it over and I can see where I have
[46:42] : punched those holes and it just makes the process a little bit easier.
[46:50] : I recently uh stitched a mandala I had
[46:56] : painted on canvas and I loved the effect
[47:01] : of how it came out but um it was definitely hard on the hands even with the pre- punched holes.
[47:09] : Get that right through my knot. Get my knot out of the way there.
[47:15] : and an all. If you're a book maker and you have an all sitting around, an all is fabulous for punching holes, but you
[47:22] : know, your needle works fine as well. And so, again, I'm not trying to make
[47:28] : these super fancy. I think the one in the center, I'll do a
[47:34] : daisy chain stitch because I love the way the little petals of the flowers
[47:40] : look.
[47:46] : And once I get the flowers stitched on here, then I can come back and add more
[47:52] : details with my paint pens or other
[47:57] : materials as well. So there we have just one super simple
[48:06] : dandelion like flower. um using just a straight stitch. I can
[48:13] : go back. In fact, I may do that because it feels fun. I may come back up here and maybe put a couple of little French
[48:21] : knots in here and just give it even a little more
[48:28] : dimension. And as I'm looking at it, I'm like, "Oh, I can also add some stitching
[48:33] : to her belt there." And so you can see there with just a little bit of added
[48:40] : texture. I can add some stitching along the waistline of her little A-frame dress
[48:47] : here. So the other one came together really quickly. And this one is going to take
[48:54] : me a little more time, but you know, this is the why we created batch created
[48:59] : the dolls ahead of time. So that then we could spend the daily five minutes or 15
[49:08] : minutes or hour working on our daily dolls. So I
[49:15] : definitely know that it is easier to do your French knots with a longer thread.
[49:22] : So don't try to, you know, save thread and work right to the end.
[49:31] : So, love the way that simple little flower looks. We don't even need to have
[49:38] : French knots at every single one. Although, you know, I'm a bit of a maximalist, so maybe it feels kind of
[49:44] : fun to have one everywhere. I'm going to have to get some more
[49:49] : thread here because it gets hard to twist the thread and be able to hold
[49:55] : that thread tight. And there's a bazillion YouTube videos teaching you
[50:00] : how to do French knots. So, I'm not going to show that up too
[50:06] : close here. People who are better at teaching than I am.
[50:14] : Okay. She definitely wants lots of knots because that feels very festive and fun.
[50:26] : And I'm doing what I said not to do is I'm, you know, not uh
[50:31] : grabbing more thread because I'm like, ah, surely I can push these out. But if you're newer to making French knots, the
[50:38] : one of the things that I found was easier was longer thread. But I am committed to making this one work. And
[50:46] : I'm thinking maybe this center flower wants to be white instead of yellow. So,
[50:52] : we have a little variety in our flowers here.
[50:58] : And we're down to the last of our merry golds and the last of our flowers here.
[51:04] : All the leaves are coming off the trees. It's definitely starting to look like winter. So, okay. I love that. Just
[51:13] : going to run that through the back quickly.
[51:18] : And again, those of you that, you know, love to stitch or love embroidery,
[51:24] : I am a messy stitcher and I am happy with my messy stitching. So, I've got
[51:31] : So, I keep scraps of thread for smaller projects like this. So, I've got just a
[51:37] : a scrap here of plain white embroidery floss. I'm going to use all six strands
[51:44] : because I want it to be a chunky
[51:50] : flower. And I have I think so much paint and sticky stuff on my fingers that I'm
[51:57] : struggling to thread my needles today.
[52:12] : I miss one. Ah, I missed one.
[52:19] : This is where, you know, you wish you had the um fast forward on the video or if you're watching the replay, you can
[52:25] : definitely fast forward and not watch me struggling to thread my little needle
[52:31] : here. Come back to my handy dandy dandy needle threader. And my eyes aren't as good or
[52:39] : my hands as steady as they used to be, I think. So, I don't know why I struggled, right,
[52:46] : to do it myself when I have these awesome needle threaders.
[53:00] : All right. So, I'm going to do that same thing here. I'm going to punch a hole
[53:06] : in the center. And then I'm going to punch the each of
[53:11] : the holes You can see I'm having to kind of work hard to punch those holes because there
[53:20] : are multiple layers of collage on here as well as
[53:26] : paint and we started with poster board, right? So, it's pretty thick.
[53:34] : So, if you're wondering why it's hard to stitch through on your own, right? Make
[53:39] : give yourself a break and punch those holes first. So, I'm going to do a
[53:45] : daisy chain here. So, I'm going to go back down the same
[53:50] : hole that I came up through. I'm going to hold my knot out of the way so my thread doesn't get tangled in the knot.
[53:57] : And then I'm going to come up through the top hole in the center of my loop.
[54:10] : And the paper is extra thick here. So, I'm just noticing it's extra thick. And so, now I have this pretty little loop.
[54:17] : And I'm going to go right back down through that same hole to tack down the
[54:23] : first. So, the this stitch is basically a variation of the chain stitch.
[54:31] : And I'm going to go right back up through the center again. And this is old embroidery floss. I can
[54:38] : see that, you know, it's fraying a little bit. It's all good. Not worried about it. Looks even more like a petal.
[54:45] : So, I'm going to make my little loop. Go back down through that center.
[54:53] : Come up over here through my hole.
[55:00] : Pull that tight.
[55:06] : Tack that down. and go right back through. I didn't try to make my petals all super
[55:13] : symmetrical, right? You know, we often think that flowers are perfect, but when you look up close, no two petals really
[55:21] : are alike.
[55:31] : Get that loop over there. And I Oops, I got it all the way around
[55:37] : her boot because this was a long piece of thread. Um, I'm liking the contrast of the yellow and the white over here.
[55:46] : And I think I'll do yellow again here because it's going to stand out really nicely against the red.
[56:01] : And this is one that I will finish up. and uh keep working on later today. So,
[56:08] : what I love is starting and doing the messy part of these projects when I'm
[56:15] : down here in my studio and then in the evenings I take them upstairs where I'm
[56:23] : sitting watching TV or chatting with my hubby and uh work on them in the
[56:29] : evening. I want to make sure that loop is not twisted over there.
[56:34] : So, this one is going to definitely probably take me another
[56:40] : at least half an hour to get all these pieces um the stitching done, the the
[56:46] : buttons attached, right? So, when you think about
[56:51] : you don't have to finish these all in one sitting. So, you know, if you have a little time one part of the day, add a
[56:59] : little something something and then come back later and add something perhaps a
[57:04] : little bit different. And I think this daisy is going to need
[57:09] : a nice French dot uh French knot right in the center.
[57:23] : All right. One more petal and it will be mostly round.
[57:30] : I'm going to come up right in the center there
[57:36] : towards the top of that. Make my loop.
[57:42] : And with fabric, you can put your needle, you know, in the fabric and bend the fabric and come up. There's, you
[57:49] : know, quicker ways to do this when you're working on fabric. It's a little more tedious when you're working on
[57:57] : paper because you're This paper in particular is pretty stiff. So, be
[58:03] : patient with yourself as you're working on your dolls. Like, take the
[58:12] : time that you need and really just enjoy leaning into them and being with them.
[58:19] : So, this one is going to be super fun to finish. I'm surprised that I got this far on two of them. Awesome, Lorraine.
[58:27] : That's the point. You've cut them all out and you're decorating them daily. That's kind of the the idea here.
[58:33] : Definitely going to want a darker green stem on these so our stems show out show
[58:40] : up a little bit better.
[58:49] : And you can see my back is messy. Let it be messy. She definitely needs her hair
[58:56] : all fixed up. Oh, maybe she wants to have a little bun like our little
[59:02] : Haven't decided yet. Okay, still parts and pieces to work on and to finish up,
[59:10] : but we got one done and one to go. My little buttons are
[59:16] : getting nice and dry here.
[59:21] : So, I'm gonna glue those on. They may need to get painted up or have some
[59:27] : patterns added to them as well.
[59:34] : And these little wood buttons are going to take a while to dry. So, I will let
[59:39] : these dry and then finish this little doll up. She is going to be pretty when
[59:46] : she's finished. And it's nice to have
[59:51] : time to put into some of these. And some of these I have just, you know, a few
[59:57] : minutes here and there to work on and they stay pretty simple. So again, don't
[1:00:04] : get caught up in making everything super elaborate because when we focus on having things
[1:00:14] : be really elaborate and we're in the middle of a 30-day challenge, what
[1:00:20] : happens is that we're going to get feeling like we're behind or frustrated.
[1:00:26] : She really wants that those nice bangs there. Okay. Definitely gonna be a hot
[1:00:33] : glue gun activity to get this on there because I have a vision of how I want it to be. Kind of a
[1:00:41] : a little boo font there. Right. But we'll get her all glued and coming
[1:00:46] : together, but it feels like she has kind of a a nice um start more to do. This
[1:00:52] : one feels like she's finished. So, we have our compassion
[1:00:57] : gratitude doll today. Okay. And I'm thinking the word courage may just go
[1:01:06] : right up here. I could even write the word directly on here.
[1:01:19] : And again, it feels like I'm gonna, you know, add a little
[1:01:24] : stitching along there. Being left-handed, I always drag my hand through everything. Right. So, we have
[1:01:31] : our courage doll and our compassion doll and more things to finish up. But a good
[1:01:38] : start on those two for the day. And I hope you have a blast working on your
[1:01:43] : dolls this week. And even if you don't have time to work on the dolls to take
[1:01:50] : some time with the prompts, because the prompts really are the most important
[1:01:56] : part. Well, hello. That just came flying out of nowhere. So, maybe this is what's
[1:02:03] : supposed to be sitting in her little uh pocket right there. So, more to come.
[1:02:10] : Have fun. Enjoy your dolls. Come hang out with me on Instagram where I'm showing more of the dayto-day finished
[1:02:17] : one, Dr. Manette Ryarden over on Instagram. And if you're on Instagram,
[1:02:23] : share your paper dolls as well. Use the hashtaggratitude goddesses and uh tag me
[1:02:29] : at Dr. Manette Ryarden over on Instagram because I would love to see what it is
[1:02:35] : that you are creating as well. And it's so fun to go from just kind of a a pile
[1:02:41] : of, you know, mess to these sweet little dolls in progress. Have a beautiful rest
[1:02:48] : of your day. Thank you for joining me live. Thank you for those of you catching the replay. Drop me a comment
[1:02:55] : or a little note and click that thumbs up button so that other people also know
[1:03:00] : that it's a video worth watching. Thanks for being here. I appreciate you. Dr. Manette Ryarden. Until next week. Bye
[1:03:06] : bye.